Expert: Roland Finston - 10/31/2011

Question
QUESTION: I have a '97 Chrysler Cirrus. I have had the thermostat & heater core replaced, radiator flushed and still heat does not get anything but barely warm. The mechanic said he had to finally end up crawling up under it and manually shut a door that is near the dash. He told me once I used my air this summer I would have to go through this process again for this winter in order to have any heat at all. Even after he shut that "door" I could leave my heat full blast it would not get really hot. All the hoses and things under the hood are getting really hot, and my gauges are reading what they should, do you know anything else I can try?

ANSWER: Hi Misai,
I suspect that the mechanical cable between the temp control knob and the blend-air door lever located under the dash on the side of the HVAC unit is disconnected so that even when the lever was positioned for heat by the mechanic it probably moved back to a middle or cold position on its own. You can remove the control unit and then inspect that cable connection to see if it is indeed disconnected and then reconnect it or repair the connection. I can xerox copy and mail you the pages from a hard copy manual that I have. Let me know your postal mailing address and I will do that.
Roland
PS Sorry for the delay in answering your question but I just found it in the "pool" to which it had been sent by the other expert, Kevin.  Please rate my answer and consider a nomination. Thank you

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QUESTION: I don't know how to get my postal address to you without everyone else seeing it..... sorry :(

ANSWER: Hi Missi,
You can ask a NEW question and after filling in the text space with your postal address you then simply check the box to "keep the question PRIVATE" and it will not appear at the Allexperts site for public viewing.
Roland
PS Thanks for the rating and nomination.

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QUESTION: still working on the problem with the heating system. All the cables were hooked up and working fine. We have bled the system, it was full of air. Now we are working on replacing the thermostat again. It is like we have the air conditioner on unless I am giving the car gas, and then I get a little lukewarm air that comes out.
Now today I was driving the car down to were it is being worked on and another problem happened. It started shifting funny like I was in between gears. Then it although I was still in drive and going down the road, it was as though my car went into neutral and my rpm's went to 3,000 and it wouldn't go back into drive. Finally after I pulled over to the side of the rode and stopped I got it to go into drive. I had the car towed, but now it won't engage into gear at all. We have checked the fluid, cv joints and linkage. You know the sound it usually makes when the transmission is engaging??? It isn't making that sound at all :-(
Any ideas on either one of these issues??????

Answer
Hi Missi,
Sorry to learn of more problems. I would have the shop plug in a fault code reader to a socket under the dash by the steering column and seek for fault codes that may be stored in the transmission control module. That is the most likely way to get a code that would give us a clue as to what specifically is wrong. I won't guess but rather would wait for the code readout. let me know what fault numbers you get and we can compare what you are told needs to be done with what the shop manual says to look for.
Roland